


The Stowaway (A Christmas Tale)

by hikarufly



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Missing Scene, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 16:35:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5463521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikarufly/pseuds/hikarufly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little Christmas gift for all my readers, and my friends of course!<br/>The Doctor is back in the TARDIS after the end of series 9 (watch for SPOILERS!) and he finds himself on a spaceship on Christmas' Eve...</p><p>English is not my first language so sorry for any mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The crew and the telephone (box)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cappyforever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cappyforever/gifts), [Naphta85](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naphta85/gifts).



Once upon a time there was a ship, a spaceship.

She was sailing the universe in search of new planets and new lives, for research, adventure and fun. It was driven by a young pilot, a human man of about 27 years of age. His crew was a little team of humans, too, and only one alien they picked up on a distant rock of a planet: the new member of the crew was shy but very wise, with profound eyes at the end of two small antennas. He was grey and dark green, with three fingers per hand, and four limbs. He wore one of the other's spare uniform, and it didn't look as bad as he thought.

The pilot was also the leader of the expedition and, apart from the alien, the only male on board. He was called Sam, and the alien was named Gene (his real name was Geneatopious III, but Gene was quicker). The three women with them teased them quite a lot, especially after their “Life on Mars” tv show marathons, for the characters were basically the opposite of their colleagues. It was a rare find: those digital remastering were very rare with old, obscure 21st century British BBC shows.

The women where Sharon, an American 35 years old technician, Annie, the young scientist genius from London, 21 years old, and Brenda, half Irish, 52 years old, social interaction expert. Sharon kept the ship going, Sam drove it, Annie studied every new discovery to bring home, Brenda made sure they didn't mess up with the locals and didn't get killed by being unkind or silly or not respectful. Gene was on board because he had found himself in a dangerous situation, and they saved him, but proved useful on finding routes and planet to discover, for he had a vast knowledge of planets and civilisations (and new the best pubs and coffee houses in the galaxy). Of course, no one made repetitive remarks on the fact that Sam and Annie were a very nice couple in the TV show, for it was so obvious only the two of them couldn't really get on with it.

 

Autopilot was on so that Sam could sleep, and Sharon and Annie were discussing some “motor science”, as the second called it. Brenda was reading a very nice book, on her own, while Gene was taking his long daily bath: his race needed a lot of water to survive. It looked like any other day on that expedition, but something was about to change.

Brenda put down her novel and sighed: her family was in New Dublin, no doubt, opening presents in from of the Christmas tree and drinking at her health and fortune. Her nephew was almost 19, and driving his first flying car. She missed them terribly sometimes, but she knew she would have been bored to death staying home. She needed adventure, she... her stream of conciousness was interrupted by a wheezing noise and a sudden thud. She stood up and followed the sound, along one of the big white, Star Wars-like, service corridors. She turned the corner and found a big blue wooden booth, with a big “Police” sign on it. Was that one of those strange machineries that Sharon had taken with her to fiddle with when she was bored? It looked too ancient even for her taste in vintage gadgets. She tried to open the door but it was locked, and it seems she had to push, not pull, to open them. Very weird... She had a small walkie-talkie, not on radio frequency for it would have disturbed the ship's systems, but on a wireless network. Brenda was about to call for Sharon but, suddenly, she realised the sign “pull to open” was also a small door. Curiosity won over caution, even though Brenda was very careful usually, and she pulled the little handle. Was that... a telephone? She looked up. “Public call” was glowing between “Police” and “Box”. A wired telephone.. like Earth in the 20th century? That stuff was way beyond vintage, it was proper archaeology! She took the receiver and tried it.

«Hello?» she asked, giggling as she was putting up a pretence.

«This is the Doctor.» a low, male voice replied. She was stunned.

«Doctor who?» she asked, more and more curious.

«Yes.» was the answer. Brenda laughed.

«Did you call me to laugh with me? It's better face to face. If you wanted to laugh at me, though, you can definitely stop now.» the Doctor replied.

«I didn't call you. I just picked up the phone!» she exclaimed, believing it to be a particularly funny and Scottish Artificial Intelligence.

«It says on the box that you may call for help. Do you need help?» he asked, impatiently now. Brenda laughed again.

«Ok, I'm getting out. Don't move.» he said.

The door of the box opened and Brenda made a jump. A stowaway!

«Jesus!» she exclaimed, a hand on her chest, her heart pumping fast.

«Still very Catholic, in Ireland?» he asked, just halfway out of the box.

«Who are you? And how did you get here?» she asked, stepping away a little and searching for her taser. She didn't like using it but most of the times was necessary. He looked human though...

«Are you a soldier? Because I don't like soldiers. They are aggressive, think they know everything, and steal girlfriends.» said the mysterious man.

«Step out of the box, slowly.» said Brenda, showing him the taser «I don't want to use it and no, I am no soldier. But I demand you to tell me who you are and what business you have on board of this ship.»

The man came out of the box and closed the door, locking it and hiding the key in the front pocket of his dark red jacket. Brenda admitted to herself that he looked quite charming, and wonderfully skinny. He had a thing for very thin gentlemen since she found that ancient footage of Sir David Bowie.

«I told you, I'm the Doctor.» he stated, unimpressed and curious. He smiled. «I am no thread and I do not think you're the kind of person who would harm me.»

Brenda blushed. How could he be so sure, and reassuring? She was convinced now he was no thread. He reached the inside pocket of his jacket, and she made another step backwards. He took out a badge, with a white sheet of paper in it.

«What does it say?» asked the Doctor.

«Nothing, it's a blank piece of paper.» she replied, puzzled.

«Judging by your technology and your psychic training, I would make a guess... 27th Century?» he supposed, looking at her with a fierce yet unmenacing look. She blushed again: God, he was charming...

«Guessed right. But I believe if you are a stowaway, you might know the century, or the year we are in... maybe not the month» Brenda was stranded, extremely stranded. He got closer and took her tazer with both hands, deactivating it.

«I am a time travel.» he whispered, and she felt a very strong shiver down her spine.

«Time traveller?» Brenda asked. She was almost decided to believe every nonsense he was about to say, if he did say it with that sexy lower tone. She was no scientist, so had no opinion on time travel theory, for what she knew he could very well be one.

«Yes, and my machine is not really too precise sometimes. Is it Christmas?» he concluded, as if his mind was racing faster and somewhere else already.

«Christmas' Eve.» she replied, her hands still in his.

He thought for a moment, and then looked at her.

«Once, I was a young dashing gentlemen, romantic you would say. In this same scenario, I would have asked you to dance.» the Doctor said.

«I have no doubt about that...» she whispered, mostly to herself. Brenda was about to ask if he was skinny and dark haired then, but she hadn't time. He let her hands go and walked a few steps down the corridor.

«Do you have a room? A private place?» he asked.

«You're quick, and definitely not romantic anymore...» Brenda exclaimed. «Anyway, I am not saying no. I am not that young anymore and I didn't think I still had that kind of charm!»

He looked at her, puzzled.

«Why shouldn't you? You look perfectly young and charming to me.» the Doctor said, as he was stating a fact, and he was.

Brenda thought for a moment that he was making fun of her, but he didn't make that impression, he wasn't, undoubtedly.

«But then again, a two thousand year old man sees everybody as young...» he added, in a melancholic murmur.

«Are you alien?» she asked, and he nodded, with a smile that seemed to ask for forgiveness about that.

«You don't intend to harm anyone. And you look like you need to talk and drink some tea...» she added, with a small sigh. That was the face of a broken hearted man.

«Come, I'll show you my butterfly collection.» she said, and took his arm.

 


	2. Tea and dance

The Doctor sat on a comfortable armchair, with a steaming cup of very sweet milky tea. Brenda had another cup between her fingers, and was sipping it slowly. She loved her tea extremely hot – just like that alien Scotsman in front of her. He had told her some amazing stories and she had explained some things about her mission and the crew.

«You really called this ship “Enterprise”?» he asked.

«Sam's idea. He was very keen on it. The others think it's very dull, but he's a big Star Trek fan.» she said.

The Doctor was weighing up all the information she had given him.

«You won't tell them I am here?»

She shook her head.

«No need. You have no business here so I believe you will go without hurting us.» she explained.

«One thing I have learned of my TARDIS: she never gets me to a place where I cannot be of help.» he shrugged «I just have to find out what it is.»

Brenda looked directly at him, as he sipped his cup.

«Tell me about her.»

The Doctor frowned.

«Her?»

«Yes, the girl that broke you heart.» she explained «Or the boy, I don't know what you fancy»

He thought about it for a while, as he was considering what he fancied, but then looked back at her.

«Her name was Clara. And I don't... I should not remember her.» he said. «She wiped my memory of her so that I would not look for her again. We were dangerous together. Dangerous for all of time and space...»

With somebody else, and on another day, Brenda would have laughed. But there was something desperate and wonderful in him that just made her feel sorry.

«So you don't remember her?» Brenda asked. He came back from the place he was loosing himself in.

«You see, the memory wiper she used was human compatible, so it worked a little bit differently on me. I can remember what we did, where we went, but when I try to remember her voice, her face... her laugh... well, there is just an empty space. Like when you have a doodling book and there is a blank area where you should draw your hero.»

She nodded. She had understood perfectly.

«For all you know, I could be her.» Brenda said, almost wishing it. He smiled.

«Of one thing I am sure: if I found her, I would absolutely know.» he declared. «Plus, she was from 21st century Blackpool, so it can't be you.»

Brenda almost looked as he had punched her in the stomach. He looked guilty.

«I can be rude, sometimes. It happens when I travel alone for too long.» he said.

She shook her head.

«You were not, I can assure you.» she whispered, her gaze down. He finished his tea.

«She found me, once. In a little diner, in America. She gave me back my TARDIS and I played her song for her. My mind cannot retain her image, anyway. I cannot look for her anymore, I know I can't. But I will remember her, somehow.»

Brenda looked up again, at him. He looked really lonely.

«I could travel with you.» she proposed, and didn't even know why.

«You could. Maybe, one day, you will. But they need you.» he looked towards the closed door.

«What would they be without me?» she asked herself, out loud.

«The same thing I am without Clara: amazing, but useless.» he said, standing up. Brenda did the same.

«I don't think you're useless. You made me forget how lonely I felt. Maybe this is why your TARDIS brought you here.» she said.

«Oh no, I think she brought me here so I would forget how lonely I felt.» he replied «Thanks to you. So I believe I owe you something.»

Brenda really hoped it was a great big kiss, but he went to her music station and turned it on. A Christmas song.

«I hate those... but this is good enough. Slow enough.» he said. He offered her his hand and she took it. He took her in his arms and started moving according to the music. They were dancing a show dance.

Brenda knew he was not dancing with her, not really. She hold on tight though.

«You could imagine I am her. Clara. So you could dance with her.» she said. «It's an exercise I used, as a therapy for my patients in New Dublin.»

He said nothing, but got closer to her. He closed his eyes, and Brenda knew he wasn't dancing with her.

 

«You improve a lot, you know?»

Clara and the Doctor were dancing around the TARDIS' console. He hated Christmas carols, but she had insisted. “In the bleak midwinter” was playing.

«Every savage can dance.» he whispered. She shivered a little in his arms.

«Stop right there.» she said, pointing a finger to his chest. «You won't quote Darcy again in my presence. Jane Austen forbid you.»

He smiled.

«True, she did.» he replied, putting his hand up as to surrender. She took them in hers and got them back to dancing positions.

«The entire song, Doctor. You promised.»

They danced for what the Doctor thought were centuries. They felt like centuries when he had lost her...

«I meant it, Doctor...» she whispered against his chest.

«What?»

«In the dream, you know... only one man could match Danny. Well, that could actually surpass him.» Clara said, still in her nightie and gown, saved by Santa Claus «He was impossible. He is impossible.»

Clara looked up at him, and he seemed confused, but he wasn't. She felt his hearts running faster. She stood on tiptoes and got so close to him her lips where almost tasting his.

«Merry Christmas, Doctor.»

He filled the gap and kissed her. Tentatively at first, as he was not sure he understood her meaning. She smiled against his lips and started kissing him more passionately, searching his skin under his dark holey jumper. He shivered, as she did before, while he lost his finger in her hair.

She unzipped his hoodie, took off that just after his coat, while he unfastened her nightgown's belt and got rid of it. She pulled the jumper off him and exposed his white skin to the artificial lights of the TARDIS. He was colder than her, but then all Time Lords are. She caressed his chest, feeling his heartbeats under her fingertips. He dragged her to the console and lifted her up so that she could sit on the border, and, after unbuttoning it, in a unique smooth movement, he took her nightie off. She unbuttoned his trousers and letting them slip down with his boxers, while he took the silk chemise off her, so that they were both topless now.

He felt her breasts against his chest, soft and round, her nipples hardening against his hairs, their three hearts running faster and faster, at the same pace. He treasured that moment, letting time slow for the both of them, cherishing her, letting his fingers caress her back down her spine and taking her knickers off. The lights got lower and warmer, the buzzing of the TARDIS became more and more sweet and finally silenced itself. The screens lightened up with northern lights, while they still kissed, and hugged and made love to each other, and …


	3. A Starman waiting in the sky

The Doctor stopped moving and embracing Brenda and she made a step back. The music was dissolving into silence.

«Sometimes I think I remember... but I don't know if it was real or just a wish. And I can't remember her face, her smile or how her voice sounded, how soft her hair was, or...» he murmured.

«Or... how her lips tasted?» Brenda asked, avoiding the rest of the list. He raised an eyebrow.

«Psychic training.» she explained, with a shrug.

He smiled awkwardly, blushing and avoiding her eyes. Her smile was definitely a naughty one, but then her demeanour and expression got sweeter. He looked so lost.

«You may not remember her but you said she saved you and got your TARDIS back. You may not remember those things about her, but you remember the love she gave you, which is more than many people have.» Brenda said, stepping back.

«I believe you're right.» he said, with a sigh. She got closer.

«You owe me a trip now, Starman.» she whispered in his ear, kissing his cheek.

«One day, you'll get it.» he reassured her, taking her hand, kissing it, and getting back to the TARDIS still holding it.

 

Sam had just woken up and he was rehearsing his “I love you” speech to Annie in his mind. It was about time, he was nervous but he had to say it to her. He was putting his pilot jacket on, the one she always looked at with gleaming eyes, but he stopped in the middle of the corridor. Brenda was talking to a man! Where had she hidden him all that time? Was he a stowaway? What was that big blue box and... why was she kissing him on the lips and he was looking so confused and stunned?

«Time Lord.» said Gene, appearing just behind him, with his ever-tired-sounding voice, like he had just woken up.

«What?» asked Sam, with a hand on his chest. He was still alive, no heart attack, thank God.

«That guy there, is a Time Lord. Actually, I think he is that war hero they call “the Doctor”.» added Gene.

«What is a Time Lord? What is he doing here?» asked Sam, puzzled, scratching his head.

«A very powerful alien race. The Doctor, they say, travels through time and space for fun. And helps.» explained Gene, while the Doctor got inside the TARDIS and it started to de-materialise with his wheezing sound.

«Do you think he helped Brenda? How?» asked Sam. Gene shrugged, or did something of the like, since his shoulders were weird.

«Maybe she helped him. Only the Gods know.»

Brenda saw the two of them, and put her hands on her hips.

«Back to work, you two. Gene, I had a very interesting advice from... someone. I'd like your opinion on our next stop. And you, Sam, go to that girl and kiss her. Quick, before you change your mind again.»

Sam smiled awkwardly and then saluted her.

«Yes, ma'am!» the human exclaimed, and ran to Annie.

Gene reached the spot where the TARDIS had vanished.

«You kissed the Doctor.» he stated. «Naughty girl.» he added, smiling. He liked Brenda, she was funny.

«I couldn't resist. He looked so like Bowie.» she replied, with a little laugh.

«He usually travels with a companion. Did he ask you?» Gene was curious. He would have said yes straight away.

«He wasn't ready for me. I am no easy woman.» she stated, crossing her arms.

«Oh yes. And we need you here.» he added. Brenda hugged him.

«I know. I would have missed you all too much. I cannot leave you to yourself. This ship would crash in no time.» she explained, and they both got to the main control room, where Annie was hugging Sam, and kissing him under the mistletoe, while Sharon was clapping, cheering, crying and smiling at the same time.

 

Brenda thought that she would remember this Christmas as one of the best. Until the Doctor would be back to offer her the trip he owed her.

**Author's Note:**

> You know, I might use this lovely crew again <3  
> Un-festively as it may seem, I wrote this listening to Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Chasing Yesterday is a great album!
> 
> Merry Christmas everyone!


End file.
